EHT (22-0) rapped 15 hits in that affair. A much different portrait painted a day later offered just two knocks for the victors.

Szrom’s at-bat in the fourth frame not only loomed as largest, but also a perfect example of the Eagles’ ways.

The three-hole hitter bunted. Coach Mary Dunlap called it. In fact, she’d discussed the maneuver with Szrom in the dugout earlier.

If someone got on, one of the team’s best bats needed to sacrifice.

“We preach the fundamentals all the time,” Dunlap said. “I knew the first couple innings, it was going to be a one-run game, maybe two runs and we needed to score. It doesn’t matter who’s in the box, we’ve got to execute.”

Alyssa Martini led off with a single to center field. An error on the throw in moved her to second. Szrom laid one down.

“We’re aggressive runners and we’re going to keep going until they make us stop,” Szrom, wrapped in five ice bags after her complete game, said.

After a fielder’s choice moved her to third, she again took the aggressive route.

A grounder to the pitcher kept Szrom at third until the throw to first. The tall upperclassman sprinted home for the score. EHT needed no more.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that we were winning this game, honestly,” Eagles’ senior outfielder Bri LaGroteria explained of her thoughts after the fortuitous fourth. “We always play with confidence, we’re never cocky and we always find a way to do it. This team is something special.”

It’s hard to emit any other mindset when you’re as good as EHT’s been over the past two years. A 24-0 run in 2016 ended in the final with a 4-0 loss to Watchung Hills.

Back to the scene of the crime they’ll go with determination to heal old wounds.

“It was one of the worst feelings in the world but I think, especially the seniors, used that as motivation for this year,” LaGroteria said. “We’re back. So, we’re going to bring it home.

“I am determined to never feel that again.”

Anguish from 12 months ago also gives way to a positive for the group.

“You know what? There’s one thing I do have and that’s experience,” Dunlap said. “If you’ve never been there like I had never been there as a player or as a coach. The atmosphere is different, the field is different, nothing about it as normal. That’s how we’ll be prepared. Be prepared for the unexpected.”

The unexpected, such as a bunt from Szrom who later laced at triple in the right-center gap for the Eagles’ second hit.

Montgomery (24-2-1) first-year coach Brian Upshaw appeared slightly miffed about the result. He felt his team played well, save for a few plays.

They just so happened to be cobbled next to each other.

“That one inning got to us,” Upshaw said. “We played great the whole game it’s just one mistake led to another mistake and that was the game.”

So it goes with EHT. Things that seem out of the ordinary end up redundant in the ledger as wins. Even the final step mirrors that of 2016.

Perhaps LaGroteria provided the most poignant review of Szrom’s fateful sacrifice and the aftermath as it pertains to the unbeaten squad.

“No matter where we are in the lineup, one through nine, we’re so diverse that anyone can do anything,” she said.